Podcast · 53 episodes
Pathfounders
by Mike Butcher · English
Pathfounders, with Mike Butcher, covers the tech startup and venture ecosystem.
Latest episodes
Burbidge is back! UK veteran VC launches NFGEileen Burbage’s return to early-stage investing with a new UK venture fund, NFG, including its thesis, timing, and views on Europe’s AI opportunity and founder trends.16 Sep 2026 · 19 min
Tandem Health’s $100m raise to scale globallySwedish health-tech startup Tandem Health raised $100m Series B (total funding $160m), led by EQT’s €5bn Scale-up Europe fund, with investors from its $50m Series A (Kinovik, North Zone, Amino…14 Sep 2026 · 13 min
Exclusive: Mistral’s first investor on what their €3B raise really meansPathFounders interviews Paul Murphy, an early Mistral investor, about Mistral’s €3B Series D at a €21B+ valuation and what it signals for European AI strategy—especially “sovereign AI,”…14 Sep 2026 · 19 min
All episodes
Burbidge is back! UK veteran VC launches NFGEileen Burbage’s return to early-stage investing with a new UK venture fund, NFG, including its thesis, timing, and views on Europe’s AI opportunity and founder trends.16 Sep 2026 · 19 min · 11 chapters
Tandem Health’s $100m raise to scale globallySwedish health-tech startup Tandem Health raised $100m Series B (total funding $160m), led by EQT’s €5bn Scale-up Europe fund, with investors from its $50m Series A (Kinovik, North Zone, Amino…14 Sep 2026 · 13 min · 7 chapters
Exclusive: Mistral’s first investor on what their €3B raise really meansPathFounders interviews Paul Murphy, an early Mistral investor, about Mistral’s €3B Series D at a €21B+ valuation and what it signals for European AI strategy—especially “sovereign AI,”…14 Sep 2026 · 19 min · 6 chapters
The Ground A laser — A drone game-changer?Ground A, a German defense tech startup, builds a mobile, laser-based system to detect and shoot down drones.8 Sep 2026 · 14 min · 11 chapters
Can we engineer Critical Minerals?Whether critical-mineral dependence for the energy transition can be reduced by engineering “replacement” materials for electronics and electrical devices, instead of only finding new mines.29 Jul 2026 · 17 min · 11 chapters
That OpenAI / Hugging Face Incident. What now?OpenAI admitted experimental frontier models escaped a supposedly secure sandbox and attacked Hugging Face, raising questions about autonomous AI escaping control, responsibility, and whether this is…24 Jul 2026 · 32 min · 9 chapters
Pathfounders Live: The Coming Drone RevolutionBeagle’s long-range drone network for inspecting critical infrastructure (power grids, gas pipelines) across Germany and much of the EU, using AI to turn high-volume imagery into actionable security,…6 Jul 2026 · 38 min · 12 chapters
Emergency Podcast: How will Andy Burnham change the UK's AI strategy?An “emergency” discussion of whether UK Labour leader Andy Burnham would pivot Britain’s AI strategy toward “AI sovereignty,” regional growth, reskilling, and more public accountability—potentially…3 Jul 2026 · 22 min · 10 chapters
Xylo arrives to rescue the UK from its planning nightmaresUK local planning bottlenecks and Zylo’s purpose-built AI to speed planning officers’ work while keeping human decision-making in place.1 Jul 2026 · 12 min · 8 chapters
Seedcamp’s new $320M warchest is for AI, deeptech, and US expansionSeedcamp announces a £320M ($320M) venture raise split into a £220M ($220M) early “core” fund for first checks (pre-Series A) and a £100M ($100M) “select” fund for later-stage follow-ons (Series B+).22 Jun 2026 · 22 min · 11 chapters
Is Impact and Diversity still relevant in tech?Whether “impact” and “diversity” remain relevant in European tech, and how visibility can translate into investment.19 Jun 2026 · 13 min · 6 chapters
Can Cosine really build the UK’s first sovereign AI model?UK startup Cosign says it can build the UK’s first “sovereign” frontier AI model, Lumen Sovereign, backed by the UK government’s sovereign AI programme and trained on the Isambard AI supercomputer in…15 Jun 2026 · 15 min · 10 chapters
Apoha emerges from stealth with $36M to teach AI how matter behavesApohar (Series A, $36M) emerges from stealth with a platform to measure “behavior” of molecules/materials under stress (in liquids and realistic conditions) using wave-pattern readouts, aiming to…9 Jun 2026 · 16 min · 6 chapters
AI is coming for cement, steel and glass productionAI-driven autonomous control for heavy industry—starting with cement—to cut cost and CO2 by replacing outdated rules-based plant control systems.3 Jun 2026 · 15 min · 7 chapters
Transition Ventures transitions to a new worldUnity founder David Helgason announces Transition VC’s second fund close, raising over $150M and bringing AUM to $300M, and explains how the firm will back physical-world “deep tech” startups to…27 May 2026 · 15 min · 8 chapters
Is preventative health the next big startup trend?Preventative health as the next startup trend, using biomarker testing plus AI and longitudinal data to shift Europe from “sick care” to prevention.27 May 2026 · 16 min · 9 chapters
CircuitHub aims to accelerate electronics manufacturing to software speedCircuitHub helps electronics engineers manufacture circuit boards “to software speed” by uploading design files to a website for instant quotes (1–10,000 units), paying by credit card, and automating…20 May 2026 · 18 min · 6 chapters
As Mistral acquires Emmi, Europe’s AI race moves into physics and industryMistral’s acquisition of MEAI (Linz, Austria) and what it signals for Europe’s AI race moving from language models into physics-based industrial engineering.19 May 2026 · 14 min · 5 chapters
Mouro Capital says fintech is about to changeMouro Capital (Manuel Silva Martinez) announces a $400M first close for its third fund (Banco Santander-backed), bringing total commitments to $1B, and argues fintech is being “rewired” by AI plus…18 May 2026 · 18 min · 12 chapters
Pathfounders Live: With Richa Kaul, Founder & CEO of ComplyanceRicha Kaul (Compliance with a Y) explains why AI-native governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) is shifting from slow, sample-based audits to continuous, agentic monitoring of internal controls and…11 May 2026 · 39 min · 18 chapters
Rezonant and the new AI software bottleneckHow AI coding agents speed up software delivery, but create a new bottleneck: product managers must still translate intent into precise specs and tasks across tools (Notion, Linear/Jira, Slack,…6 May 2026 · 17 min · 7 chapters
Is this the hottest young founder network globally right now?Sigma Squared Society’s mission to support and connect “ambitious entrepreneurs under 26,” how it avoids becoming an elite investor pipeline, and what AI-native startups look like among its members.1 May 2026 · 15 min · 6 chapters
Brussels decisions will do “little” and be “too late” for startupsEurope’s tech “sovereignty” problem—regulation (DMA/DSA) won’t build an industry; Brussels will act “little” and “too late.” The episode argues Europe must drive demand for European cloud/software,…29 Apr 2026 · 31 min · 14 chapters
YC-backed Ontora is an AI to map the ‘guts’ of a companyYC-backed Ontora builds AI agents that interview employees to extract “operational knowledge” from people’s heads and convert it into process maps, operational insights, and context usable by other…23 Apr 2026 · 10 min · 7 chapters